Indy the dog is seen at the Westlake Village Animal Hospital in November 2013. He has scars on his back legs from an incident in which he was burned and abandonedon the Fourth of July 2013. A man was in court June 10, 2014, on animal cruelty charges related to Indy’s injuries. (File photo by Michael Owen Baker/Los Angeles Daily News)

Protesters gather in front of Van Nuys Superior Court on Tuesday, June 10, 2014, at the "Justice for Indy" rally that took place on the same day that Carlos Efrain Duarte, 41, was in court on charges related to Indy the dog's burn injuries and abandonment on the Fourth of July 2013. (Photo by Hans Gutknecht/Los Angeles Daily News)

VAN NUYS >> More than 100 animal-rights advocates demonstrated in front of the Van Nuys courthouse Tuesday morning, calling for “Justice for Indy,” a young pit bull badly burned and left for dead last summer.

The protest preceded a hearing for suspect Carlos Efrain Duarte, 41, of North Hollywood, who is charged with one count of animal cruelty for allegedly pulling the severely injured dog from the bed of his truck and abandoning him in an alley between Kittridge and Hamlin streets in Winnetka. A good Samaritan saw the animal and took him home for the night before he was given to an animal shelter and placed in the care of veterinarians, according to authorities.

Prosecutors are in the process of discussing a potential settlement and are taking the case “very seriously,” said Los Angeles County Deputy District Attorney Elan Carr.

If convicted on the animal cruelty charge, Duarte faces up to four years in county jail, said Jane Robison, a spokeswoman for the L.A. County District Attorney’s Office.

Duarte is next scheduled to appear at the Van Nuys courthouse on July 18, when a preliminary hearing date is expected to be set.

While a witness observed Duarte pulling the injured dog from his truck on July 4 and confronted him, Carr acknowledged they do not know what or who precisely caused the dog’s injuries. It has been widely reported the wounds were caused by fireworks strapped to his body, but Carr said he could not confirm that.

“What I filed is cruelty to an animal for failure to care (for him) and neglect,” Carr said. “That’s because we are charging the defendant with abandoning a clearly injured dog … We don’t know how the dog got injured. There’s no evidence whatsoever of what happened to the dog and whether the defendant was the cause of the injury.”

The dog was found dehydrated and with abrasions and burns on both sides of his chest, rear legs and all four paws, police have said. Attorney Laura Orozco, who is representing Duarte, declined to comment on the case Tuesday. Her client has been out on $30,000 bail since last month.

Duarte has been convicted in various jurisdictions at least four times since 2002 for driving under the influence of alcohol, including one in 2009 in San Bernardino County for which he was sentenced to a year and four months in prison, said Chris Lee, a spokesman with the San Bernardino County District Attorney’s Office.

The case has also attracted some celebrity attention. TV host Ellen DeGeneres visited Indy last summer and made an appeal to her fans to help cover his extensive medical expenses.

On Tuesday, animal-rights groups and individuals from throughout Southern California held signs outside the courthouse reading, “Cage the Real Beast,” “Punish Animal Cruelty” and “Justice for Indy.”

Among the protesters was reality TV star Simone Reyes, executive assistant to Russell Simmons, co-founder of the hip-hop music label Def Jam.

Reyes said she was there to support Indy and hoped the judge would levy a stiff sentence on anyone abusing animals. “This is so important to me because animals are the most choiceless and the most voiceless,” she said. “We have to be their voice.”

Animal-rights activist Gloria Butler of Beverly Hills said Indy’s situation was one of the most horrific abuse cases she’s seen, and she wished the end result could be “to set this man on fire … and that would be justice.

“I know that’s a bit harsh, and I know that’s not going to happen, but a good amount of jail time will make me happy, too,” said Butler, who is married to Terence Michael Joseph “Geezer” Butler, the bassist for Black Sabbath.

Indy, who was so named because he was found on Independence Day, has been adopted by one of his caretakers and is doing relatively well, though he has struggled with his injuries and a once-compromised immune system, said Rene Ruston, co-founder of the Valley Village-based Shelter Transport Animal Rescue Team (START), which helped care for the wounded dog.

Ruston said she was told by one of Indy’s veterinarians, who has since passed away, that the dog was likely burned by fireworks or some kind of device strapped to his body. She said the dog was practically catatonic when they received him, with third-degree burns on more than half his body. He’s now being trained as a therapy dog.

“I’ve seen a lot of abuse in my animal career, but that one broke me,” Ruston said before the hearing. “I sobbed every time I saw him. He was such a brave boy. He would start to give kisses to us even though he was in agonizing pain.”

Brenda Gazzar is a multilingual multimedia reporter who has worked for a variety of news outlets in California and in the Middle East since 2000. She has covered a range of issues, including breaking news, immigration, law and order, race, religion and gender issues, politics, human interest stories and education. Besides the Los Angeles Daily News and its sister papers, her work has been published by Reuters, the Denver Post, Ms. Magazine, the Jerusalem Post, USA Today, the Christian Science Monitor, the Los Angeles Jewish Journal, The Cairo Times and others. Brenda speaks Spanish, Hebrew and intermediate Arabic and is the recipient of national, state and regional awards, including a National Headliners Award and one from the Associated Press News Executives' Council. She holds a dual master's degree in Communications/Middle Eastern Studies from the University of Texas at Austin.